that this blog is far too PC for my audience. Alright, readers. I will
spice it up a little. My fundraising projects have already been
approved by the FSD Office in San Fransisco, so I guess I can let lose
a little bit.
Last weekend, Jenny and myself (and the Gettysburg interns) journeyed
to the Ssese Islands. The Islands were referred to as the Bahamas of
Uganda...this is probably not accurate. There is one village on all
84 islands, most of the islands are uninhabited/undeveloped. Because
of this, things like transportation and food should be planned.
Oops.
Well, my sense of direction is never quite accurate. But the only map
we had of the island we found ourselves on was grossly inaccurate. So
I said we don't need transportation, we can just walk to 5 kilometers
to our campsite.
Oops. The 5 kilometers was actually closer to 45 kilometers. We got
very tired of walking and eventually realized we wouldn't make it
before dark. The only solution seemed to be renting two boda-bodas
(motorcycles) to take us. So Jenny and I approach two guys with
motorcycles and make an offer. 10,000 shilling each to take us. Each
motorcycle has 3 people on it, it would be slightly precarious but
fine. No, they say. 10,000 per person for a total of 20,000 shilling.
I laughed at them.
We spent the next half hour bargaining with them until finally Jenny
took me aside. "Sarah. You have just spent the last twenty minutes
arguing over a dollar."
I realized how I was and we loaded up on the bodas. Three people on
each boda with all of our equipment...highlights of the boda trip?
Crashing. Driving into a chicken. Nearly driving into a monkey.
Getting stuck in the mud. Thinking we were going to die about 9 times.
But we survived.
We finally made it to the campsite and spent about 3 hours hanging out
on the beach and swimming in Lake Victoria. I probably have snail
larvae in my intestines, but it was definitely worth it. Then we had
to eat bugs for dinner because we forgot to buy food in town and the
food at the camp was left out and thus, was attacked by bugs of every
size.
Oh well. Protein.
We had booked a taxi to take us back to the ferry in the morning. We
thought the ferry left at 2, but it actually left much, much
earlier...our taxi showed up at 9:30. Our driver told me that he told
me the wrong time and we needed to leave IMMEDIATELY. I abandoned my
delicious pancake breakfast (....it was going to be so good) and threw
my stuff in a bag, woke up Jenny and jumped in the taxi. Forgetting my
shoes.
The trip wasn't entirely disastrous. I met some very interesting
Germans, on vacation from volunteering in Rwanda. I had the chance to
practice my German while sitting around a campfire in the rainforest,
in the middle of Lake Victoria.
I'm leaving for Jinja in a few hours to raft 31 kilometers of Category
5 rapids in the Nile. What could possibly go wrong?
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